Walt Simonson Drawing January's LSH

Some early samples of it have been posted.

What Super-Power Do All Terrans Possess?

James Nicoll raises the question of, in a less Earth-based Legion of Super-Heroes (such as one that exists out there in the galaxy right now and comes to Earth to recruit), what power would all Terrans share that would justify one being a member. Similar to how all Braalians, Carggites, Durlans, etc. have a common power.

Interesting discussion in the responses. The leader, in my opinion, looks to be our ability to throw things at other things. Doing so with any degree of accuracy, let alone having Tom Brady become Quarterback Lad, is said to be unique for humans among Terran lifeforms.

LSH Action Figures On Sale 11/15...No, Not *Those* Figures

Mattycollector.com has announced its monthly sale on the 15th items, and among a lot of other items, they're having a mass sale on JLU style 4-packs. This includes the Legion 4-pack of Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, and a blue Brainiac 5.

Originally $30, if you buy 10 4-packs (same person doing the order, shipped to the same address), they'll be only $12 each. Buy 20 packs, $10 each. Buy 30 packs, $8 each. They don't have to all be the Legion 4-pack; you can mix and match the Shazam! Family, Gotham City Criminals, Justice Guild, and Doom Patrol 4-packs with the LSH one to reach 10, 20 or 30.

It is a bit unclear if they'll be sold in quantities less than 10 for the usual $30; it's vaguely implied, but not explicitly stated.

Full list of items on sale on MattyCollector's News Page.

As a side note, comments by MattyCollector reps on their forums indicate a decent chance there'll be a second run of 12-pack, but no guarantees.

Two Bits Of Legionnaire Business

1) OK, that's just adding insult to injury with respect to my not getting the action figure set. Tonight's Big Bang Theory has the Legion figure set appearing in the background in scenes taking place in the comics store the characters shop in. For those who recorded it, look behind Sheldon's left shoulder.

2) Still need some Legion Archives? www.talesofwonder.com is running a sale that includes most of the already printed Legion Archive volumes at half price. I've shopped with them before and been satisfied.

If you're in Chicago on Saturday....

In case you didn't see this on one of the mailing lists or elsewhere:



Hey Guys,

I normally don't promote anything going on at my shop on list but this
is HUGE (to me)

This Saturday (October 22)

Jeff and Phil Moy are at Third Coast Comics to sign copies of Star
Trek/Legion of Super Heroes #1 from 2PM to 7PM

They are also bringing Cory Corani! All of these guys are also pretty
plugged into the video game industry given their work on the X-Men
Legends and Ultimate Alliance franchises.

Now I don't know how many of you are in the Chicago area (I know
Anstey is a few hours south I think) but this could be a cool event
for us legion fans!

Third Coast Comics
6234 N. Broadway
Chicago, IL 60660
www.thirdcoastcomics.com

Let's Hope This Isn't The Final Scene In The Legion/Trek Crossover...

Today's Let's Be Friends Again posits an ending for the Legion/Trek crossover that's just wrong...

January Legion solicitations

Also, a reminder that the first issue of the Legion / Star Trek crossover comes out this week.

LEGION LOST #5
Written by FABIAN NICIEZA
Art and cover by PETE WOODS
On sale JANUARY 11
32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
RATED T
Our team of time-stranded Legionnaires must do battle with Alastor, the hulking bio-terrorist who has unleashed his lethal future virus in the present-day DCU! But before they arrive on the scene, Dawnstar must try to survive the behemoth alone!

LEGION: SECRET ORIGIN #4
Written by PAUL LEVITZ
Art and cover by CHRIS BATISTA and MARC DEERING
On sale JANUARY 25
32 pg, FC, 4 of 6, $2.99 US
RATED T
As more worlds fall to the mysterious alien armada, the Legion continues its struggle to defend the United Planets. Will new members Ultra Boy and Star Boy be enough to turn the tide?

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #5
Written by PAUL LEVITZ
Art by WALTER SIMONSON and DAN GREEN
Cover by WALTER SIMONSON
On sale JANUARY 18
32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
RATED T
Legendary artist Walter Simonson comes on board for an ambitious single-issue story that walks you through a day in the life of the Legion, checking in with every single member along the way! It’s a race against time to find the meaning of Dream Girl’s predawn vision before its secret can catch the team by surprise!

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES: THE CHOICE TP
Written by PAUL LEVITZ
Art by YILDIRAY CINAR, FRANCIS PORTELA and WAYNE FAUCHER
Cover by YILDIRAY CINAR and WAYNE FAUCHER
On sale FEBRUARY 29
224 pg, FC, $17.99 US
This new LEGION title collects issues #1-6 from 2010, including the unwelcome debut of Earth-Man, the kidnapping of Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad’s twins, the revelation of a new Green Lantern and more!

How'd People Do On Getting The Action Figures?

Given that Mattycollector is now showing them as sold out, I'll abuse the power Michael gave me (: -)) and ask if anyone might have gotten an extra set they'd be willing to sell me. Over a 3+ hour period, I repeatedly got "payment not authorized" messages, despite trying several credit cards, different browsers, and clearing out cookies and caches. Anyone else have similar problems?

Action Figures On Sale Tomorrow

Final reminder that the Legion figure 12-pack goes on sale tomorrow (Monday) at 0900 EDT, 1200 PDT, at www.mattycollector.com. $180 plus postage and possibly tax (definitely in California). In addition to the Legion figures, they're also selling a fair number of Ghostbusters, Masters of the Universe, and Rainbow Lantern DCU figures, so don't be surprised if you're tossed into a wait loop at first. To save time, I recommend going to the site today and creating a shipping/billing profile. Mattycollector's page for the figures is here.

The Chameleon Boy - Spider-Man Feud

This week's Comic Book Legends Revealed looks at a brief "feud" between Marvel and DC. The DC contribution was Cham breaking the fourth wall after having changed into a spider to comment that he'd been "changing into all sorts of weird shapes long before [Spider-Man, or at least a description of him] walked up his first wall". Michael is given credit for providing needed info for the piece.

Why Does Brainiac 5 Stay In The Legion?

Christopher Bird provides his explanation, in a nice one page introduction to Brainy. It's done as part of a series where he writes an intro to a character, each of which is drawn by a different artist. In this case, the art style reminds me of Ty Templeton's.

Legion To Guest In Action Comics #5-6

Per the DC Source blog, the Legion will be guest-starring in Action #5 and 6, which'll be done by Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert. Assuming the book will still be set five years in the past at the start of Superman's career, and given the implication in Legion #1 that the Legion has still previously met Kal-El in the DCnU continuity, I'd guess this would be "classic Legion" rather than being limited to the Legion Lost team.

Action Figure Two Week Warning

Just a heads-up that Mattel's Legion of Super-Heroes 12-pack (14 if you count Proty and the empty slot labelled Invisible Kid) of 6" scale action figures will be going on sale at noon EDT on Monday October 17th. Cost will be $180 + postage and possibly plus tax (certainly true if you're in California).

Ordering during one of the monthly sales can be frustrating, as frequently their servers are overloaded and you're tossed into a waiting loop. At least the loop does visibly refresh every 5 seconds, so you don't have to wonder if you're still in the queue. However, I'd still recommend going to www.mattycollector.com in advance and setting up a profile with your shipping and billing addresses to save time on the actual sales day.

Picture of the complete set can be seen here.

Shooter, Manapul On Their Legion Run

Over the last few days, Jim Shooter's blogged about his plot for Brainiac 5 and Dream Girl's wedding in his last Legion run. Way down in the comments, he goes into detail about problems he'd had with his run on both the production and artist fronts.

In response, artist Francis Manapul blogged about his side of things.

Admin note

Due to a number of factors at home (like getting laid off and planning for a long trip which I'm currently on), it's obvious that I can't devote time to updating this for the next few months. Plus, I never got a chance to read the last issue or two of Legion and Adventure, so not only do I not know how that storyline ended, I will miss out on all the commentary for the first 3 issues of the DCnU series. Rather than have this sit empty and forgotten, I've gotten a co-author for a while to keep this going.

To Freedom, Friendship, and Frunt, and Long Live the Legion!

More Heroclix coming too

Via Gamers Daily News comes word of a new Heroclix expansion set, coming in September:

The DC HeroClix: Superman expansion will feature more than 50 figures in standard five-figure boosters.  Celebrating over 70 years of history, Superman brings all of the action and amazing power that only the Last Son of Krypton can deliver, and where Superman treads his greatest villains and allies cannot be far behind!  Popular sub-themes in the set will include: All-Star Superman, the World of New Krypton, the Legion of Super Heroes, the exciting and pivotal Flashpoint mini-series and more!

Finally - flight rings!

Via Bleeding Cool:

For every 25 copies of Legion: Secret Origin #1 by Paul Levitz and Chris Batista, comic book retailers can order a bag of 50 Legion of Super-Heroes Promotional Flight Rings. 

Wonder if these will come with a warning label similar to the DC Direct one from years ago: "Warning: Does not enable wearer to fly".

SDCC 2011: The New 52

The first of DC's "New 52" panels at SDCC11 has a little bit about the new Legion title. Paul Levitz was on the panel.

Via Comics Alliance:

On the Legion of Super-Heroes: Levitz rather foul-mouthedly noted that while [Demon Knight author Paul] Cornell has the entire medieval world to "f*** around with," he has the entire future.

Via Newsarama:

Next is Legion of Super-Heroes #1
Levitz's "Legion #1 for the third time. They'll keep making me do it until I do it right."
"We'll be gently easing them in with a modest cast at first."
"Cornell may have the medieval dcu to f*ck around with, but I've got the FUTURE" said Levitz to laughs and claps.

Via CBR:

Levitz said that his vision of the Legion's future era changes every chance he has to start fresh

SDCC 2011: Star Trek/Legion crossover

[Note: On June 28, I received an email with a link to the Mike Grell cover of Legion/Star Trek #1 by IDW, which I posted here. Grell told me that it was premature and asked if I could pull it until it was official. That notice came Thursday at San Diego.]

Updated 7/22 with more links at the bottom.

 Via Bleeding Cool:

 “STAR TREK/LEGION OF SUPERHEROES is a galaxy-spanning adventure that draws both teams together to face a menace that includes Khunds, Klingons, Borg, and other threats that aren’t quite as they should be. The egalitarian United Planets in one universe and a United Federation of Planets in another is now the Imperial Planets of Terra, a dark empire focused on war and conquest, and that’s just the beginning for this special series.”

Six issue series, ships in October.

Via CBR:

IDW, which will publish the six-issue miniseries, announced the project during its Thursday panel at Comic-Con International in San Diego and revealed that Chris Roberson will write the series with Jeffrey and Philip Moy on art.

... Roberson will be working with the classic incarnations of each team, with the Legion entering into the story shortly after "The Great Darkness Saga" and the Enterprise crew picking up shortly after the Original Series, at "some point near the end of the original five-year mission," Roberson said. 

The crossover will feature six heroes from each team, Roberson told CBR, for a very logical reason. "The limitation was based on the number of transporter pads on a Constitution-class starship," he said. "There's only six. So unfortunately, Scotty had to remain on the Enterprise." The 12 characters will encounter a changed reality, one that merges aspects of the 31st-century DC Universe and the 23rd-century's Final Frontier to the disadvantage of both. "In the altered universe they find themselves in, what's happened is that both of their histories have been obliterated by a change that's happened somewhere in the past," Roberson explained. "So the bifurcations that would have given rise to both their universes didn't happen. Elements of both their universes exist in this blended one."

... "The cast [of creators] lined up for the covers is incredible." That cast include Phil Jimenez as the regular cover artist and Keith Giffen, Steve Lightle, Mike Grell and "Locke & Key" artist Gabriel Rodriguez providing variants.

Other reporting and commentary via Comics Alliance, Newsarama, Major Spoilers, The Outhousers, io9, the official Star Trek site, and ICV2, which calls it "the most startling and unexpected announcement of Comic-Con so far".

San Diego 2011: Preview

Some actual or potential panels you might be interested in at San Diego 2011. Lots of stuff on the New DCU (aka the DCnU), replacing the normal DC Universe and DC Nation panels, and three DC/Mattel panels in which we might find out more about the Legion figures.

THURSDAY

11:30-12:30 DC: Flashpoint— Everything you know will change in a Flash! Flashpoint, the blockbuster comics event of the summer, has turned the DC Universe inside out! Join DC Comics Executive Editor, Eddie Berganza, and some of the amazing talent behind Flashpoint for a panel that's sure to pose new questions about this explosive event even as it answers others! Room 6DE

11:30-12:30 Mattel and WWE: Past, Present, and Future— Hear from some of the top WWE Superstars of all time as they discuss the storied past, exciting present, and promising future of the company and how it's all celebrated in Mattel's action figure toy line! Get a sneak peek at upcoming products and be the first to hear exciting announcements for the 2012 line. Be on hand as WWE Superstars Triple H, Rey Mysterio a surprise WWE Legend, the WWE creative team, Mattel toy designers Bill Miekina and Derek Handy, and Mattel WWE brand manager Enrique Ruvalcaba present an action-packed Q&A! Room 24ABC 

1:00-2:00 DC Direct— DC Direct has long been known as one of the most creative companies that produce collectibles for the direct market, producing your favorite action figures, statues, and busts for over ten years now. DC Direct director of product development Jim Fletcher along with artist Adam Hughes, DC exclusive sculptors, and others discuss their line of current projects, as well as future plans revolving around the new DC Universe. Room 5AB

2:00-3:00 DC Comics - The New 52— DC Comics explodes in September with 52 new number one issues and one panel is not enough to cover it! With a "DC Comics - The New 52" panel each day, there's sure to be something for everyone! Join Dan DiDio, DC Entertainment Co-Publisher, Bob Harras, DC's Editor-in-Chief, and DC Comics Executive Editor, Eddie Berganza, for an up-close look at this unprecedented wave of new series, from the first-ever re-launches of Action Comics and Batman titles to the latest thrills from comics' cutting-edge! Room 6DE

5:30-6:30 Spotlight on Paul Levitz— Marv Wolfman (Teen Titans, Superman) and Mark Evanier (Kirby: King of Comics) interview fellow comics fan, writer, and editor -- and Comic-Con special guest -- Paul Levitz about his life, from The Comic Reader to DC Comics president & publisher, and now beyond as he returns to writing Legion of Super-Heroes and makes his debut as a historian with the Eisner-nominated 75 Years Of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Myth-Making. Room 8

 FRIDAY

11:15-12:15 DC Comics - The New 52— DC Comics explodes in September with 52 new number one issues and one panel is not enough to cover it! With a "DC Comics - The New 52" panel each day, there's sure to be something for everyone! Join Dan DiDio, DC Entertainment Co-Publisher, Bob Harras, DC's Editor-in-Chief, and DC Comics Executive Editor, Eddie Berganza, for an up-close look at this unprecedented wave of new series, from the first-ever re-launches of Action Comics and Batman titles to the latest thrills from comics' cutting-edge! Room 6DE

11:30-12:15 Direct Conversation— Join executives from DC Comics for a special chat and Q&A session on September's "The New 52" launch, spotlighting sales incentives, marketing and publicity push, and much more. Room 18

1:00-2:00 Mattel: Mattypalooza 2011: Masters of the Universe Classics, DC Universe, Ghostbusters, Voltron, and More!— Are you a Matty Mattel fan? Head over to this year's Mattypalooza to get all the latest info on your favorite Mattel collector lines and MattyCollector.com. Featuring a special Q&A with Mattel toy designers Bill Benecke and Brandon Sopinsky, Mattel brand managers Scott "Toy Guru" Neitlich, Danielle McLachlan, Rhobyn de Jesus, and Natalie So, and guest starring The Four Horsemen. As a bonus, Matty, the original Mattel collector, may even make a live appearance to reveal secrets for the upcoming Masters of the Universe 30th anniversary! New toys will be shown for the first time! Room 25ABC

3:00-4:00 Mattel and DC Comics: A Heroic Partnership— You've been a fan of Mattel's popular DC toy lines, now find out the latest news, sneak peaks, and behind-the-scenes scoop on your favorite Mattel/DC action figures, including DC Universe Classics, Young Justice, Action League, and more. Plus, get an exciting look at new 2012 products. Join Mattel toy designers Bill Benecke and Mike Guarniere, as well as brand managers Danielle McLachlan and Scott "Toy Guru" Neitlich, along with The Four Horsemen and surprise guests from DC Comics and Warner Brothers for an insightful Q&A. Room 4


3:00-4:00 DC: Superman— How does The Man of Tomorrow fit into the new DC Universe that rises in September? Find out as group editor Matt Idelson joins new Action Comics writer Grant Morrison (All Star Superman, Batman Incorporated) and author of the bestselling Superman: Earth One graphic novel J. Michael Straczynski (Superman, Wonder Woman) to take fans new and old up, up, and away to give them a sneak peak at what's in store for Superman. Room 6DE

SATURDAY

11:15-12:30 DC Comics - The New 52— DC Comics explodes in September with 52 new number one issues and one panel is not enough to cover it! With a "DC Comics - The New 52" panel each day, there's sure to be something for everyone! Join Dan DiDio, DC Entertainment Co-Publisher, Bob Harras, DC's Editor-in-Chief, and DC Comics Executive Editor, Eddie Berganza, for an up-close look at this unprecedented wave of new series, from the first-ever re-launches of Action Comics and Batman titles to the latest thrills from comics' cutting-edge! Room 6DE

SUNDAY

1:45-2:45 Designing the New 52— What does it take to remake a universe? There are new stories, new characters, and especially new designs! DC's Co-Publisher Jim Lee, VP - Art and Design Mark Chiarello, exclusive artist Cully Hamner, and others discuss their visual approach to reshaping the DC Universe! Room 6DE 


3:00-4:00 DC Comics - The New 52— DC Comics explodes in September with 52 new number one issues and one panel is not enough to cover it! With a "DC Comics - The New 52" panel each day, there's sure to be something for everyone! Join DC Comics Group Editors Matt Idelson and Mike Marts for an up-close look at this unprecedented wave of new series, from the first-ever re-launches of Action Comics and Batman titles to the latest thrills from comics' cutting-edge! Join Matt, Mike and some of the industry's top writers and artists as we make history together. Room 6DE